The Immortalists

What if you knew the exact date you would die? Would you live your life any differently? Would you tell your family and friends? Would you believe it was true? What if you knew that your siblings knew their death dates too?

In Chloe Benjamin’s novel, The Immortalists, we meet the four Gold siblings, Simon, Klara, Daniel and Vayra. As young children growing up in New York, each one of them had been made aware of the day they will pass. We as the readers see immediate reactions and changes, but through the remaining chapters we truly get the impact of how this knowledge can affect a person and a family. While we know what the end result is going to be, because let’s face it, no one gets out alive, we are given their joys and their sorrows and see that through each of them, regardless of their eminent dates, they lived each in their own way.

The stories of the four both intermingle and stand alone. Each sibling takes us on a journey of living, loving and life. With its ups and downs The Immortalists is an enjoyable and eye opening read that leaves us thinking and pondering our own lives and mortality. Chloe Benjamin has constructed a piece of familial art in this book that any reader can relate to in one form or another. If you are looking for a good read that gives you time to reflect, I highly recommend this book. My one sorrow is that I borrowed it and had to return the copy and do not have it to add to my own personal collection.